Tag: money and saving tips for girls

Perhaps not so much inspirational as practical, but something that’s very important as women. I was a personal financial seminar yesterday given by a Galia Gichon- check out her website, Sown to Earth Finance for great tips and her new kit – My Money Matters. who pointed out many facts I already know – women have a complicated relationship with money, women earn .79 cents to a man’s$1.00. Women spend an average of 11 years out of the workforce caring for family. Women live 10 years longer then men. All of this adds up to poor women – poor now and poor in retirement. And then there are the issues women have with money – talk about a complicated relationship – we feel guilty for having money. Many times we’re very good at making – but also very good at spending it. So good at spending it that we bankrupt ourselves – not literally perhaps, but in the sense of lost opportunity. Want to change jobs to something that may pay less but is more fulfilling – you can’t if you’re overspending. Want to spend more time with the kids – well it might be possible if you hadn’t shopped until you dropped. Want a comfortable retirement? How many bath towels do you own (Don’t worry – I am not pointing fingers – you should see my closets).

So take a few moments to look over your checkbook or your credit card statement and see what you’re really spending money on. Is it just the basics? Or is the basics plus the TJ Max habit? Which would make you feel better – an hour in the aisles of a store, or resting easy at night knowing you have money in the bank? There’s a saying – Nothing tastes as good as thin feels. Well, try this one – Nothing feels as good as rich. And by rich, I don’t mean Donald Trump rich – I mean knowing you can survive for a few months if you lost your job, that you are saving for retirement, that your credit card debt is not taking over your life – that possibilities are opportunities are available to you because you have the means to seize them!

So the end of the weekend came and went, and I tried and I really tried not to spend all my money.But I did and then some.If $5 hadn’t shown up from Nana, then I’d have been in trouble.I guess I shouldn’t have gone to the mall, right.I mean if you’re trying not to spend money, then you shouldn’t go to a place that’s all about getting you to spend more.Funny how I never noticed it before, but all I could seem to see this weekend were the posters and the flyers and the announcements that seemed to get you to spend $10 instead of the $7 you wanted to in the first place.Every little place always asked if you wanted to get two instead of one for just a little bit more, or if you wanted the grande size instead of the regular size.And before you even in know it, the $2.50 is gone, so is the $1 I took from it’s hiding place and promised to use only and only if I really, really needed it., plus the extra $5 nana sent me. The $8.50 was gone before you knew it.On headbands (I only meant to buy one, but somehow I wound up with 3 for the price of 2) and a caramel decaf mocha latté.Grande.I knew I didn’t need it, any of it, since I have like 20 headbands alreadyArggh…So a full accounting:

In

Out

What I Spent it On

$10.00

Allowance

$1.00

Savings

$1.75

pens and pencils

$3.25

hot chocolate and a cookie

$1.00

Donation

$5.00

Gift From Nana

$8.00

3 headbands and a latte

$15.00

$15.00

Total In/Out

Total left over:

$–

That’s 0 a big, fat 0

Ouch – guess I didn’t do such a good job.I spend everything I had more.And I feel bad for even getting the dollar out if it’s super secret safe hiding place.Guess I need a better hiding place…Abby and Dr. Smith say I shouldn’t give up.They said to try maybe just putting .50 cents in my super safe box and see if that makes it easier to forget about it at first.And Abby said that maybe I should go to the library more, since it’s free, instead of the mall, where I may be tempted.

Well it’s almost Friday and I only spent a dollar yesterday. I am not sure where or how, because I forgot to bring my notebook down, but I think I dropped it in one of those collection buckets for the holidays.I know it’s for a good cause, but I am upset I can’t remember where it went.And, maybe, just maybe I also bought myself a candy bar…So technically I have $2.50 left. For the weekend.Plus that extra dollar I hid away and said I would never, never ever touch….I can feel it calling to me, in that little box up in the closet, but I suppose at this point, another $1 wouldn’t make that much difference, and I am better off leaving it there, right?Check out GirlMogul.com for more about us, the GirlMoguls.See ya,Lils

So today, I managed not to spend any of my money after all.It helped maybe that I left it at home so I wasn’t tempted by anything. Well I was.There was a magazine I really wanted because it had a story about Hannah Montana on it. But Daisy made fun of me, so I didn’t get it. The Rose pointed out that I could probably go to the library to get it.Well, it wasn’t there but one of my other favorites was, so I found out something. You can take all but the current issues home with you. I wound up taking like 7 different ones home, even ones I had never thought about before, including one about personal finance and starting your own business. I thought it would be good research.So today, according to my notebook, I still have $4.50 left for the week…Check out GirlMogul.com for more about us, the GirlMoguls.See ya,Lils